Registered nurses and licensed practical nurses at Wilcox Hospital and Kaua’i Medical Clinic have a lot of concerns regarding a proposed merger of Wilcox Health System with Kapi’olani Health and Straub Clinic & Hospital. According to Nancy McGuckin, executive director
Registered nurses and licensed practical nurses at Wilcox Hospital and Kaua’i Medical Clinic have a lot of concerns regarding a proposed merger of Wilcox Health System with Kapi’olani Health and Straub Clinic & Hospital.
According to Nancy McGuckin, executive director of the Hawai’i Nurses’ Association (HNA) that represents nurses at all three organizations, a merger which would centralize human resources and other administrative functions in Honolulu might not be in the best interests of either the Wilcox nurses or Kaua’i.
McGuckin said the association hoped the Wilcox Health System board of directors had the answers to all of her questions before making an expected decision at a special board meeting yesterday to move forward with merger plans.
Besides issues with complete access to healthcare options for Kaua’i residents and concern for professional practice and workplace conditions, McGuckin said the nurses are concerned about how fast the merger seems to be moving forward, and if alternatives to the merger were fully investigated.
“Were all other options explored?” she asked. “Why are we doing this is six months?” She said the nurses association also questions how the merger will actually help the three entities increase revenues.
Centralized billing, group purchasing, administrative centralization and other consolidations under the proposed new entity, Hawai’i Pacific Health, will help reduce certain costs, she agreed.
“But,” she said, “in terms of revenue over the long haul,” what are the prospects?
Other types of cost-cutting measures, some already in place or being implemented by the system and showing promise to reduce costs and/or increase revenues, can be done without resorting to the merger that nurses are concerned will dilute or eliminate local control and decision-making, she said.
“It is clear that change is coming, but the nurses of Wilcox and Kaua’i Medical Clinic want all options to be fully investigated before a decision to merge with Kapi’olani and Straub is finalized,” the association declared at a nurses’ union unit meeting in Lihu’e earlier this week.
“I think the whole community should be concerned. Has Wilcox done due diligence (investigating the financial ability and stability) on Straub and Kapi’olani?” McGuckin asked.
In a full-page advertisement in The Garden Island earlier this week, the HNA demanded “the right and opportunity to provide input, support and help as a new direction for our hospital is charted,” a seat on the hospital board of directors, and “pre-decisional involvement, including a vote by Kaua’i nurses prior to changing our health system.” “We want Wilcox to ask the nurses for a vote,” McGuckin said after learning that the physicians group voted in a straw poll four to one in favor of the merger.
“It’s a big step to give up your autonomy. It’s kind of globalization coming home,” said McGuckin, who is also acting director of the HNA collective bargaining organization.
“The question is, why give up autonomy if there are other options? Kapiolani, Straub are not in wonderful condition. I don’t get it,” she said.
While a merger of Straub and Kapiolani alone wouldn’t be a big thing for the HNA (the two organizations are blocks away from each other in Honolulu), “we don’t have that same confidence in Wilcox. There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” McGuckin continued.
And when Wilcox chief executive officer Dave Patton was asked some of those hard questions, like what is going to happen to Wilcox and who will be calling the shots, he wasn’t able to answer, she said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
